


it's only up from here

by uwuxuxi



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pre-Relationship, Rollerblades & Rollerskates, Skateboarding, Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas is Whipped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:21:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28019931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uwuxuxi/pseuds/uwuxuxi
Summary: Cute Boy’s friend must say something to him about Lucas staring because he looks over at him with his straw inches from his mouth and a curious tilt to his head. Lucas feels a little stupid as he offers him a wave and a bright smile but cute boy returns it readily and Lucas finds himself falling in love with the sweet curve of his eyes and his smile. He’s adorable and it’s enough for Lucas to skate across the street to go say ‘hi’.
Relationships: Osaki Shotaro/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 17
Kudos: 110





	it's only up from here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fvckradio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fvckradio/gifts).



> i told y'all on twitter that i was gonna do it. i was so cryptic about it but i said i was gonna do it!  
> inspiration for this comes from two places! the ship comes from me just being a tinhat but also this [gif](https://twitter.com/i/status/1337007439913209858). the inspiration for lucas and shotaro's little skatepark dance came from [this](https://www.tiktok.com/@pixiiewixiie/video/6878320190019439878?_d=secCgsIARCbDRgBIAIoARI%2BCjykzsSLatyrM6TDg%2FOT9yopwVTbu0GEw48G4JjIT11ZvlDzYypXpChbVInS5IKF%2BjJsG1UHsFiotw1sn8MaAA%3D%3D&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAIFTQa73_OEVX1OkTudgGzgaPydSK6SrIMor5Nu-Zup0WUhm9w49MA258VnOIyj6o&share_item_id=6878320190019439878&share_link_id=4737C844-D950-4741-868E-3B1A763F8179&timestamp=1607656445&tt_from=copy&u_code=db8h9ikh31fg5m&user_id=6801877993284830213&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy&source=h5_m) tiktok!
> 
> and sharks. hi baby. you don't know what you want for christmas and i know you were down today so please accept these goofballs. i hope they make you happy. i love you <3

The first thing Lucas sees when he skates past the boba spot is bright turquoise skates tied off with yellow laces. A cherry charm hangs off of one of the skates and Lucas can really only think _cute_ before his eyes trail up long legs in ripped jeans, a chain covered in smiling daisy charms, and an oversized my melody shirt before he’s faced with one of the cutest boys he’s ever seen. Cute Boy is sipping a green drink through a fat straw as he kicks one of his skates back against the wall and laughs at something his friend says.

His smile is _gorgeous_.

Lucas wants to kiss it.

Cute Boy’s friend must say something to him about Lucas staring because he looks over at him with his straw inches from his mouth and a curious tilt to his head. Lucas feels a little stupid as he offers him a wave and a bright smile but Cute Boy returns it readily and Lucas finds himself falling in love with the sweet curve of his eyes and his smile. He’s adorable and it’s enough for Lucas to skate across the street to go say ‘hi’.

Cute Boy’s friend is giggling, the sound high and sweet as he taps the back wheels of his pink skates against the sidewalk. He’s cute, too, but Lucas has a very singular focus and it’s getting to know the boy in the turquoise skates with his cute little charms hanging off of him. Whoever said they ain’t never seen two pretty best friends clearly have never laid eyes on these two.

Lucas kicks his board up so he can hold it in his hand and Cute Boy whistles at him. Lucas knows he’s not actually impressed, it’s not a real trick after all, but the whistle does help boost his ego a little. “Hi,” he says and knows that ten would hit him over the head for being so stupidly casual but Lucas sees a pretty boy and loses his brain cells. It’s a medical condition and he _cannot_ help it, okay? “I like your skates.”

“I like your board.” Lucas forgets his skate deck is custom for a second and leans his board back to look at the graffiti style dragon Ten had strained himself to paint. It’s gotten pretty beat up in the weeks Lucas has used his board since the paint job, but it still looks fantastic. “How long were you going to stare at me?”

He’s quick. Lucas likes that.

“how long were you going to let me?” Lucas counters, smile turning lopsided as Cute Boy and his friend both laugh. “Whatcha drinking?”

“Will you buy us more if we tell you?” his friend asks before biting down on his straw, brow rising into his faded pink hair. He's _tiny_ up close, even with the added height from the skates, but he’s got a fire in his eyes that reminds Lucas of Dejun. He thinks they’d get along. 

“I’ll buy you more if I can get your names.” That gets him a small snort but Tiny Friend seems to think it’s a fair deal and shrugs.

“I'm Renjun,” he says and taps his wheels against the pavement again.

“I'm Shotaro,” Cute Boy says and lowers his drink after taking another sip. “And you? What’s _your_ name?”

Lucas grins and gives his board a nervous little spin. “Lucas. My name is Lucas.”

Shotaro smiles that _perfect_ little smile and Lucas has to fight the urge to kiss it off of him. He's just gotten his name but he’s kind of already planning their future. He wonders if Shotaro likes dogs and if Bella will like him. “Well, _Lucas_ , how about that refill?”

Lucas learns that the only reason Shotaro and Renjun are allowed in the boba shop with their roller skates on is that Shotaro’s older brother is the manager and does not have a fuck to give in his body. Lucas thinks Yuta is fucking _cool_ with his long black hair, piercings, and painted nails, and hopes he can see him more often.

Yuta almost doesn’t let Lucas pay out of reflex of spoiling his little brother but Lucas gives him puppy dog eyes because he has a boy to impress and a best friend to win over and those are _very_ tall orders he has to fill today.

Yuta does not need to know all of these things, obviously, but Lucas might be trying very hard to get Shotaro’s number and he hopes Yuta is sympathetic to his plight in that regard. 

When Lucas joins Renjun and Shotaro at the end of the boba counter to wait for their drinks, Shotaro is amusing himself by doing little turns in place. The chain on his hips is clinking lightly and Lucas finds himself immensely charmed by everything that makes Shotaro up. He's known him for _maybe_ five minutes maximum but he wants to know everything about him. 

And hold his hand.

And take him on dates.

And kiss him.

Ten is probably laughing at him somewhere. He might not know why, but he’s definitely laughing.

“When did you start skating?” he asks as he leans against the counter and rests his foot atop his board. Renjun does the same and Lucas gets the feeling that the smaller boy is directly challenging him. He doesn’t blame him, really, he’d be doing the same if someone was flirting with Dejun but there’s something very intimidating behind Renjun’s golden contacts.

“Since we were...eight?” Shotaro muses, looking at Renjun for confirmation and getting a slight nod in response. “Yuta taught me and Renjun’s older sibling taught them.”

“Sicheng was definitely meaner about it. They compete so they take it _very_ seriously,” Renjun adds as he tosses his first cup in the trash and takes his foot off of Lucas’s board. Lucas guesses that the dominance assertion is done for now, then. “But yeah, eight years old. How long have you been skateboarding?”

Lucas only picked up skateboarding when he met Mark a few years ago, though Kunhang has been skating since they were ten. He tells them as much even though he doesn’t need to tell them his life story because it’s nice to see Shotaro’s little eye smile grow. “So, like, three years?” Their drinks are ready and Lucas reaches over to grab them, managing to hold all three in one hand before he takes his own from the bunch and holds out his other hand to Shotaro and Renjun. “For you!”

Shotaro is staring at his hand while he takes his drink, eyes surprisingly focused before he turns his head to say something in Japanese to Yuta, who snorts loudly and throws a straw at his head. It misses, but Lucas doesn’t think Yuta really wanted to hit him in the first place. “You have big hands,” he says, voice soft and sweet, before he stabs his reusable straw into the lid of his boba with an odd fierceness.

“Yeah!” Lucas says, smiling as he stabs his own straw into his drink. Renjun seems to find this funny and snickers around his straw but Lucas decides to let it go for now. They’ll let him in on the joke eventually.

They sip their drinks in comfortable silence for a few minutes and Lucas misses the long stare that Shotaro gives his hands when Lucas is distracted by one of the paintings on the wall. It's a nice painting and Lucas takes a picture of it on his phone to show Ten later.

“Have you guys been to the skatepark?” he asks after he swallows a huge gulp of boba, arms propped up on the counter. He’s probably in someone’s way, but no one has told him to move yet so he’s going to stay right where he is, lazily sliding his board back and forth with his foot.

Shotaro shakes his head as Renjun wrinkles his nose, which Lucas doesn’t think is quite fair and then he remembers that the skatepark can get a little...rowdy at times. It’s usually really nice, though, and Lucas has seen roller skaters doing tricks there every once in a while. Jaemin is one of his favorites because Lucas is actually convinced that he’s a god with the way he will find _any_ excuse to do a headstand in those skates. 

It’s typically to get Mark’s attention and he usually gets it so Lucas admires his hustle. 

“We should go, it’ll be fun!” Lucas can see Renjun’s reluctance melt in real-time and positively beams at him and Shotaro as Renjun sighs out a ‘sure’.

Shotaro, at the very least, looks much more enthused and that makes Lucas’s heart sing a little bit. “I saw this thing on TikTok, can we try it?” 

“ _Th_ _at's_ not suspicious,” Renjun says, his brows once again rising up into his hair as he shakes his head at his best friend. He's skating backward and Lucas thinks he’s _very_ impressive for that. it looks difficult and most times Lucas has seen it tried at the skatepark, someone ends up falling on their ass. “Is it a trick?”

Shotaro hums and cuts his eyes over at Lucas before they disappear into sweet crescents and steal his breath away _again_. It’s not fair how he already has the power to make Lucas dumb. “In a way, yeah. Lucas, are you willing to try it with me?”

Renjun mutters something about how that’s even _more_ suspicious but Lucas doesn’t really care since he gets to be _helpful_. “Sure! What is it?”

“I’ll tell you when we get there!” Lucas admits that is a little suspicious but Shotaro doesn’t seem like he’d be the type to try something that would hurt Lucas or himself so he’s willing to go into this blind for a cute boy. 

On the way to the skatepark, which is a little closer than Lucas remembers it being, they share facts about each other. He learns that Renjun is an Aries and Shotaro is a Sagittarius, and that _he_ is an Aquarius which means nothing to him, and that Renjun _really_ likes astrology. Shotaro is a dance major who makes dance and roller skating TikToks, Lucas follows his account immediately, and Renjun is an art major who occasionally fights people on stan Twitter for hot takes on red velvet. Lucas is not active on stan Twitter, Renjun says that may be for the best, but he follows Renjun anyway. They've been friends since they were babies because their older siblings are best friends–and apparently date off and on, Renjun says it’s kind of toxic but Lucas isn’t one to judge–and do almost everything together. They fit kind of like puzzle pieces and Lucas likes the way they move together, skating loops around one another and Lucas when the space on the sidewalk allows for it. His criminal justice major isn’t as interesting in comparison, even if both of them disagree with him, but his minor is definitely cooler.

“You’re a linguistics minor?” Shotaro asks, skating close to Lucas and gently bumping their shoulders together. “Do you speak a lot of languages?”

“I do! English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, and a little bit of Thai. I wish I spoke more Thai, cuz my mom is Thai, but she didn’t really teach me.” Shotaro’s arm is warm and Lucas bumps against him again just to feel it, smiling brightly. “I just think languages are neat!”

Renjun hums appreciatively, turning around to skate backward again. “Canto is your first language?” When Lucas nods so does Renjun. Renjun has unlocked a part of his backstory now. “That’s cool~ My Canto is so fucking bad.”  
“It's okay, my Mandarin is absolute shit,” Lucas counters with a laugh as they make it to the skatepark. “If we combine our powers, we could be unstoppable.”

“Like _The Power Rangers_ ,” Shotaro says sagely and Lucas wants to propose on the spot. Instead, he just agrees enthusiastically. 

Lucas isn’t surprised to see Dejun in the park with Jaemin, but he is surprised to see him standing still on his board while Jaemin skates circles around him. They don’t talk for long because Jaemin spots Mark and is off like a man possessed, latching onto Mark’s arm and stealing a sweet kiss. 

“Why didn’t you get me boba?” Dejun accuses Lucas as he skates up with Renjun and Shotaro as if Lucas would remember that he was supposed to be meeting Dejun at the park in the first place after he was absolutely entranced by Shotaro. Dejun expects so _much_ of him.

“I made new friends!”

“That is absolutely no excuse to forsake me.” Dejun huffs and blinks a little as Renjun laughs bright and sweet. Lucas can see the ‘okay, maybe it is’ form in his eyes and lets a little kernel of satisfaction rise in his chest as Dejun and Renjun’s eyes meet. “But hi, I’m Dejun.”

“I'm Renjun.” He holds his hand out and their rings make a barely audible click as their hands meet. Secretly, Lucas thinks it would be super fucking neat if he and Dejun, as pretty best friends, _also_ dated a pair of pretty best friends. There’s no guarantee that Dejun and Renjun will get along like that but Lucas has hope in his heart and he won’t let it go for the moment. 

“Shotaro!” he chirps and offers a wave before skating over to Lucas and giving him that sweet eye smile that has Lucas’s heart in a chokehold. “Can we try that trick now?” he asks and it’s not like Lucas has it in his stupid little heart to say ‘no’. As he skates off with Shotaro, a big hand wrapped around his slightly smaller one, Dejun turns to Renjun with a skeptical look in his eyes.

(“Do you know what the trick is?” he asks, hands on his hips. He’s sure Lucas is capable of handling himself, he’s been doing it for this long, but he’s prone to doing stupid shit to impress boys he thinks are cute and Dejun can tell that he thinks Shotaro is _very_ cute.

“No clue,” Renjun answers with a shake of his head and a tilt of his drink towards Dejun. “Do you like honey lemon tea?” He watches Dejun’s cheeks color with a self-satisfied smile and hums as he takes the offered cup to take a sip. “Good, right?”

“Right…”)

Lucas looks over Shotaro’s shoulder to watch the video on TikTok with him, humming softly in thought. It’s not hard at all and Shotaro is really doing the bulk of the work when it comes down to the dancing but Lucas is more than happy to ballroom dance with him around the skatepark. “Do you think Renjun will be okay with filming it?” he asks, resting his hands on Shotaro’s shoulders and tapping a rhythm out idly. He's never waltzed a day in his life but it seems easy enough to him. “Dejun probably wouldn’t mind.” He doesn’t say that Dejun will probably film it anyway for blackmail material and to text it to Kunhang about how whipped he is for someone he just met. “Or Jaemin. Actually, we should ask Jaemin.” 

Shotaro cranes his head back to look at Lucas and Lucas has to try very hard to not think about how easy it would be to kiss him at this angle. Sure it would be a little awkward but it would also be very nice. “I don’t think Renjun would mind~ He’s used to recording for me.” Shotaro calls for Renjun and Lucas turns his head in time to see Renjun and Dejun’s eyebrows shoot up into their hair at how close he is to Shotaro.

He’s not entirely sure why Dejun is surprised. Lucas is handsy and all of his friends know that it’s hard to go an hour without Lucas’s hands ending up on them one way or another. Renjun, on the other hand, has every right to be skeptical.

“Can you film?”

“Film _what_?” Renjun’s already skating over with Dejun in tow despite his tone, holding his hand out for Shotaro’s phone. 

“Lucas is going to ballroom dance with me around the skatepark~” His voice is so sweet that Lucas cannot help but beam and Dejun is similarly charmed even if Renjun rolls his eyes. “It’s cute and it won’t be hard!”

“If you say so~”

They run through it a few times before Renjun records and Lucas is more than a little enchanted by the way Shotaro’s lightly calloused hands feel in his. They deviate from the original song in the video on Dejun’s count and Lucas finds himself enchanted by the way that Shotaro steps and twirls around him and his board. Even like this, it was easy for Lucas to tell how talented of a dancer Shotaro was in the way that each step was elegant and sinuous. 

“I think we’re ready!” Shotaro announces after a couple more run-throughs and while a bubble of nervousness rises in Lucas’s throat, Shotaro’s excitement is easy to match.

When they start the dance for the final time, Shotaro’s phone covering Renjun’s face as he skates alongside them and Dejun keeping count for them just out of range of Renjun’s camera, Lucas’s entire world narrows down to Shotaro’s pretty smile and his hands in his. He can tell by the pulling of his own cheeks that he’s grinning stupidly wide down at Shotaro as he helps him twirl alongside his skateboard.

Lucas thinks that even without the practice that he’d be able to move this easily with Shotaro. that maybe they were meant to fit together like this. It might be wishful thinking, a part of Lucas’s burgeoning hope that Shotaro’s interest in him might be as large as Lucas’s interest in _him_ , but Lucas likes the way that their hands fit together and the way that Shotaro smiles at him.

When Renjun calls cut, Lucas doesn’t let go of Shotaro’s hands. 

The video, to absolutely no one’s surprise, comes out great and Shotaro sits on a nearby bench to edit it for posting. He kicks his feet, pink wheels sliding over the pavement, and Lucas is so hopelessly endeared that he doesn’t notice when Renjun sidles up to him and links his skinny arm through Lucas’s.

“Skate with me?” While it’s phrased like a question, Lucas knows it isn’t one. “You like him.” That’s not a question either.

“I want to get to know him,” Lucas replies carefully, holding Renjun’s gaze instead of staring at his pink skates like he wants to. He wants to become very familiar with the teal laces and the peach charm hanging from them but he knows that passing the best friend test is crucial and Renjun doesn’t look like he’s going to make it easy. “But yes, I like him.”

Renjun’s arm slips from Lucas’s but his hand stays curled around his bicep as he turns to skate backward again. Lucas realizes, suddenly, that it’s a power move and he’s sufficiently intimidated. “Are you going to ask him out?”

“Are you going to kick my shins if I say yes?” This seems to be the right answer if Renjun’s laugh is anything to go by and Lucas finds himself smiling brightly in turn. “Renjun, I really think he’s neat–”

“ _Neat_. You’re unbelievable,” Renjun interrupts but Lucas doesn’t let that phase him.

“And I want to get to know him better. I want to know what soda he gets at the movies, what his favorite color is. His favorite TikTok audio, favorite animal, favorite artist… The little things, you know?” Renjun looks terribly soft for a moment before Lucas ruins the moment with his big ass mouth. “I also want to kiss him silly.”

“Of _course_ you do.” But Renjun doesn’t sound like he’s going to break Lucas’s kneecaps for his honesty so Lucas is going to count that as a win for the chaotic bisexuals. “If I tell you that he wants the same, what will you do with that information?”

It's almost golden hour. Lucas looks over to where Dejun and Shotaro are sitting on the bench and his eyes are once again drawn to those bright turquoise skates. “Ask him for his number and if he’d like to kiss me.”

Renjun smiles. “In that order?”

“In whatever order my brain decides.”

Renjun snorts, playfully pushing Lucas before they skate back to Dejun and Shotaro together. “I guess that’s fair.”

**Author's Note:**

> please come be my friend on [twitter](https://twitter.com/faeriedoyoung) i ONLY get up to shenanigans


End file.
